Monday, October 10, 2011

Today I am showcasing another cartoon from the WTF department: the Scrappy cartoon 'The Gold Getters' (released March 1, 1935) animated by dependable duo Sid Marcus & Art Davis (& crew). Sure, it's not on anybody's top ten list but there's some funny gags, some nice rubbery cartoon animation, weeeeird timing and, well, a lot of head scratching in general. What more could you ask for?

SEQ 1: Some guys are sifting through some crap. This is what people did before the internet. Crap sifters came in a variety of decorative colors and styles.

Hemorrhoidal mules were a key demographic. This image later appeared in a series of popular medicinal cream ads in the Saturday Evening Post.

Not everyone could afford crap sifters however. The less advantaged had to make due with body hair.

Some learned to eat the crap while sifting out the nuggets with their teeth. This was a life lesson they learned early.

Gray nuggets, of course, were known as a delicacy and the prices they could fetch were capable of supporting any number of gambling or alcohol habits for as long as six weeks!

Of course, the cultural center of any such mining community was 'Ye Old Saloone'. Families would come from miles around to see the nightly ye old drunk beatings.

As times were difficult bartenders in such establishments allowed only one drop of acid per mug.

By this time in the cartoon, Scrappy already has his pile of gray nuggets so, one might think, there's no place for the cartoon to go from here. But Marcus & Davis have an ace up their sleeve...

That's right, I'm talkin' about a giant hideous head!

I have no idea when this practice started at Mintz but it certainly had an antecedent in 'The Match Kid' (released May 9, 1933) which is a veritable smorgasbord of giant hideous heads!

Upstream industrial effluents were widely known to cause milk to be highly toxic to the crap sifting community. Depression era saloone keepers happily capitalized on the situation by renaming the beverage "milk with a *pop* *pop* *pop*".

Meanwhile tobacco expectorate and filthy butt cans continued to delight children of all ages.

I kid a lot but you know if Sony ever did put out a collection of Mintz cartoons I'd be first in line, pushing senior citizens and children out of the way, to get the first copy! I love this stuff.

And seriously, once you get this song in your head you'll never shake it out.

"During the span of years from 1914, I have made efforts to retain the "cartoony" effect. That is, I did not welcome the trend of the industry to go "arty". It was, and still is, my opinion that a cartoon should represent, in simple form, the cartoonist's mental expression. In other words the "animated oil painting" has taken the place of the flashiness and delightfulness of the simple cartoon.

In my opinion, the industry must pull back. Pull away from the tendencies toward realism. It must stay in it's own backyard of "The Cartoonist's Cartoon." The cartoon must be a portrayal of the expression of the true cartoonist, in simple, unhampered cartoon style. The true cartoon is a great art in it's own right. It does not need the assistance or support of "Artiness." In fact, it is actually hampered by it." - Max Fleischer